


Gold

by HungryLibrary



Category: RWBY
Genre: Gen, I killed her off, I'll probably do it again someday, it was horrible, sadfic, visiting the grave, what do you do afterwards
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-12
Updated: 2014-05-12
Packaged: 2018-01-24 11:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1603955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HungryLibrary/pseuds/HungryLibrary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yang knows it won’t be the last time she visits the gravestone. But for now…. maybe she should pretend it will be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gold

It was always windy at the edge of the cliff.

Something about warm air rising from the forest meeting the colder air falling from above… Yang couldn’t remember. It might have been covered in one of her lessons, battlefield analysis maybe, but she’d only just started showing up to class again and still wasn’t really paying much attention.

Most of the last month had been spent right here, staring a bit of carved-up rock.

_‘Summer Rose’_  read the stone’s inscription.

“Hi Mom.” Yang said.

“It’s really nice out today. Lots of sunshine and a nice breeze to keep you from completely roasting, I’m pretty sure all of Beacon is out tanning themselves…. Well, most of Beacon anyway.”

Yang could think of a few people who wouldn’t feel up to the cheery warmth. She could barely stand it herself.

But there was a reason for coming out here today.

“Ozpin says the dedication’s going to be next week.” Yang eyed the steep drop-off before her, watching a crow ride the updraft. “And I got them to change the location. It didn’t take much, I don’t think they had the heart to argue with me.”

A shadow flashed over the marker as the crow winged overhead. Yang waited until it had disappeared over the forest.

This was a private moment. She wanted no spectators.

“I didn’t come out here in the blazing sun just to tell you that, though. Wanna guess the surprise?”

Yang didn’t bother pausing for an answer that would never come.

Instead she forced a smile and hefted the giant scythe in her hands.

“Finally got it fixed…” Her voice wouldn’t rise above a whisper. “Took me awhile. It’s like a work of art, and you know she was always better at figuring out weapons stuff than me.”

The shaft was polished to a perfect shine, almost burning in the light. Red like roses, red like fresh blood, red like…

“Ruby loved this thing so damn much, I couldn’t just let it lie around in pieces could I? Nope.”

She laughed a bit at that last word.

She stopped quickly, afraid of the sudden hitch in her breathing, the pinching pain in her throat.

“… So it’s… fixed now.”

And everything else is broken.

Yang shook her head, raising one hand to swipe at her eyes.

“Thought about keeping it around, but I can’t use Crescent Rose myself. Nearly took my leg off trying- someday someone will, though. So Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch are going to keep it safe till that someone shows up. I think she-“

Her voice quavered on the word.

“S-she would have wanted that. Right? Ruby wouldn’t have wanted her work to go to waste, buried under a marker like the corpse she didn’t leave behind.”

A familiar pressure was building in Yang’s chest.

The first time she’d felt it, folded over from the pain of it, they’d rushed her to the infirmary. Weiss had been convinced she was having a heart attack.

Turns out it was just good old grief.

The only thing the doc could do for her was offer sedatives, but Yang had said some stuff that was probably the pain talking and refused.

She’d let herself have a cry, then gotten up again. There had been work for her to do.

Arrangements for the memorial, combing the battlefield for missing pieces, going through Ruby’s stuff back in their room-

And now it was all in order.

Yang had nothing left to do.

“You should have seen her, mom.”  _And I should have stopped her._

“Like a hero out of those story books she always asked me to read.”  _I wish I’d never read her a single word._

 “….”

The wind was cold at the cliff’s edge.

It was cold and dry and it made Yang’s eyes sting- and this time there was too much for her to just brush away-

A bit of red cloth fluttered in the breeze, flicking across her face. Hope flared and she almost thought…

Yang shook her head again with a laugh, this time at herself. 

The sound soon became more like a sob. That only made her ‘laugh’ harder, and she grabbed a handful of the new scarf, pulled it close to soak up her tears. 

The cloth was old and soft. It had been well-worn and well loved.

She was probably imagining the lingering smell of cookies. The red scrap had been washed and soaked for days, after all, trying to get the stains out- There had hardly been enough left of the cloak to make even this thin strip-

Yang took a deep breath in, held it for a moment, then let it shudder slowly out.

If she didn’t stop this  _right now_  she knew they’d find her here at curfew, curled up and spent. She wanted last time to really be the last time for that.

She wasn’t sure she would be able to stand back up again if she fell.

Ruby had always been her reason. Ruby and her smile, Ruby and her great big heart in that tiny little-

_dead_

-body, Ruby and her dreams of happy ever after…

“…She did manage to give us all an ‘after’, didn’t she? Even if it isn’t happy, even if she died for it like you did… I bet you’re real proud of her.”

Proud. Yang felt a strange mess of a smile twist across her lips.

She _was_  proud of her little sis.

What kind of sicko took pride in their sister’s death? What kind of heartless bitch would be even a _little_  glad that everyone in Beacon was going to turn out for the dedication of their little sister’s gravestone-

The scarf was tight around her neck.

Yang stared down at the hand that was pulling it taught, slowly strangling her with the pressure.

Her eyes glanced back at the stone and the hundreds foot drop beyond it.

She let go.

“…I think that’s it. You’ll hear more of the same when they move her stone up here. She had friends, really good friends, and they’ll probably want to say their part, so I won’t bother.”

For all her strength, Yang wasn’t used to the weight of the scythe she was carrying. With a twirl she draped it over her shoulders, careful of the blade and trigger, and let her head fall back onto the shaft.

“You won’t be seeing so much of me once the dedication’s over.”

She doubted it mattered if she addressed the stone or the sky as she spoke. If her mother was listening, then looking up would be the best bet anyway.

“I’ve got classes. And there’s the rest of the team- they haven’t minded, but I can’t keep ignoring them like this. Our leader would go into a panic if she saw us right now- Wouldn’t you, Ruby?”

If her sister was listening, then up was the only place she could be.

“I miss you.”

Yang didn’t bother hiding the tears.

“…And I’m going to take care of them. So don’t worry, okay? Everything… everything will be alright.”

She grinned a little- or at least tried to.

You got credit for trying, right?

“See you later little sis.”

They was no answer as Yang turned and started back toward the school.

But the sun shone down on Crescent Rose, warming the hands that held it. And for one second the red almost seemed to burn and flash-

-a bright and cheerful gold. 


End file.
